Folding down the rear seats in a saloon

[alastairm]

how on earth do i fold down the back seats in my saloon. I've stuck the key in and tried the catches but to no avail, is there somehting i'm missing? Also, do the bottoms of the seats ie the bits that you sit on come up to create a flat area? Remember, it's a saloon!
thanks in advance

[andyt]

You're probably not missing much, but you have to give the handle quite a strong squeeze. I presume you've turned the key to unlock them? Problem is I'm not sure off the top of my head which way locks and which way unlocks, but I'll check tonight. When closing it again, you have to slam it hard enough for the red part of the tab (the one that pops up when you open it), to disappear again.

[Knutts]

Ditto Andy.

You can't pull up the seat to get flat loading area because of all the connections for the heated seats.

[MarkusRS6]

Andy is right
first time I tried to fold them down I thought I couldn't do it either.

[Shoppinit]

According to the manual, you need to pull the lever towards the front of the car.

If it's locked, unlock it first. Not very helpful, I'm sorry.

However, I've noticed with mine that it's a very tight fit, and you can easily miss pushing them back into position 100% in which case I would imagine that the mechanism would not be very fluid.

[mattler]

In th avant I find you have to really slam them back into position to make them click in properly. I guess this is because they are quite heavy and a nice snug, well engineered fit!

[andyt]

Problem is I'm not sure off the top of my head which way locks and which way unlocks, but I'll check tonight.

Having finally got around to trying this, turning it anticlockwise unlocks it. On the driver's side at least, the unlocked position is parallel to the handle itself.